Does anyone know how I can search cases that a particular barrister has worked on?

v638sg7k1a92bx · 19-09-2018 12:25AM #1

Does anyone know if this information is available or do I need to subscribe to an online platform?

Victor · 19-09-2018 01:02AM

You could go through judgments on courts.ie

.. or you could ask the barrister.

v638sg7k1a92bx · 19-09-2018 10:07AM

Thanks, I did that but only 3 results appeared none of which related to the person involved. There's a barrister who has worked on a few cases that I'm researching and I'd liked to run a search on all the cases they've been involved in.

NUTLEY BOY · 19-09-2018 11:10AM

Unfortunately, Irish cases accessed through www.courts.ie or www.bailii.org do not seem to identify counsel who appeared.

Contrast that with the English system where the names of counsel who appeared for each party are usually identified at the heading of the judgment.

beaufoy · 19-09-2018 05:21PM

Patricia Scary Stone wrote: »

Does anyone know if this information is available or do I need to subscribe to an online platform?

If you are making a case for incompetence dishonesty, or just lack of due diligence it is as good as impossible. There is a Judge in Kent England where it can be proved did not read the case notes or even the subject of the case, and when asked about his lack of knowledge of the case during the hearing lied by saying he had read the papers. The above can be proved by the transcript of the hearing and the judge does not deny said proof, but has refused to resign and the regulator has failed to act against the judge

patsypantaloni · 19-09-2018 08:48PM

If you can get access to the Justis database then it's possible to search for reported cases by counsel but it won't include unreported cases

hullaballoo · 20-09-2018 08:18AM

Although reported cases do usually list counsel, only a very tiny proportion of cases are reported. Even though there are plenty of written High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court judgements, only a small few of these are reported. Cases are only reported if there is some significant legal question addressed rather than because they are a bit juicy so reports are also boring if you're not interested in the law.

The other side of the coin is that counsel do get mentioned in newspaper reports. Usually, these cases are a but juicy but have little or no legal significance and certainly won't tell you anything useful about the counsel involved.

Occasionally, a written judgment published by the Courts Service will mention counsel by name but it's rare and again may not tell you much.

The point is that even searching reports is a useless way of knowing what cases any one barrister has worked on. Some very prominent barristers have gone their whole lives without ever having a case of theirs reported.

To answer the OP, there really is no way to find out what cases a barrister has done other than by unreliable means like asking the barrister or his colleagues.

Does anyone know how I can search cases that a particular barrister has worked on?

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